i was sitting here on XDA and i saw that a user here had his phone stolen from him, and people posted several solutions like GPSTracker and latitude but the user did not have either installed. would anyone be interested in a remote brick? basically it would be like SMS commander, but you send a text that holds a password and the correct brick phrase and the phone will brick. the best(and worst) way i can see to do this would be to have an old radio on the sdcard and have the haykuro SPL on there as well. then when the phone receives the text it flashes the old radio and then the haykuro SPL which we all know would brick the phone. i am still working on possible implementation or another way of doing this(maybe run "wipe all" in terminal), but i was just wondering if anyone would be interested before i really try it out.
maybe in future if app works well our ROM devs could include in their build and then it couldn't be removed(easily). the main reason i would want something like this is so if my phone was stolen i could make it useless to the idiot that stole it.
few minor details that would need to be worked out:
won't work if SIM is changed as number would be different
if i use the terminal command "wipe all" then theif would only need to have a new ROM to install and it would be all better
on the of chance you get the phone back you would want to be able to easily fix the phone
let me know what you think, keep in mind this is a very early stage idea and i haven't put more than 20 minutes thought into it
cant lie the idea is brilliant but execution would be the make or break point, and i have a feelin this will take alot of test g1's to get working lol...and multiple devs as a team to get up off the ground. But im all for it, i have had bad luck in the past especially with sidekicks and etc and this would be a perfect idea to have.
Great idea but don't forget when restoring it (if you manage to retrieve your phone), it should only 'unlock' to a certain pass phrase pre-set by the user. If not anyone could just run the 'unlock' command to start using it again.
On the whole, a great idea.
However, I think flashing an incompatible theme with your current build would be sufficient, seeing as 99% of the people who go around stealing phones would have no idea how to fix a G1 stuck on the T-Mo/Not-Flashing-Android Screen.
Although the Old Radio+New SPL combo ensures that there will be minimal data retrieval, it also seems like overkill for the majority of circumstances, seeing as your phone would become a paperweight.
The terminal command "wipe all" will wipe the data and system partitions and crash the phone, when the person who stole it tries to reboot it it won't boot
Even if you wipe (or remove the SD card) most builds would still boot regardless. A remote kill switch has been around on many platforms for some time, hell even Microsoft have been threatening to use it on Vista for pirated builds but it has never happened.
In this case, perhaps the app would need root access, so it could remotely reboot the G1 and run a script to force a boot loop, if you wanted to go as far as rendering the mobile temp unusable.
However the G1 as it is has plenty of security flaws... I mean many of us managed to get root without issue and I'm sure any google searches will point them to this forum. There is no security for fastboot, nor accessing the recovery image so people can pretty much do as they please - If they know how.
Yeah, I don't know about bricking the phone because it would suck if eventually you did get it back. Then you're stuck with a brick phone maybe theres away around it though which could work not sure how you'd implement this though. I mean the idea is there just going to be abit hard to execute because the problem is with all these theft problems, if they have the phone off when the sms is sent then it doesn't work.
I wouldn't mind having this. If someone snatched my G1 out of my hands and got away, I would just use my friend's cell 1 minute later to make my phone a paper weight, then have peace of mind. lol
Dladu said:
Yeah, I don't know about bricking the phone because it would suck if eventually you did get it back. Then you're stuck with a brick phone maybe theres away around it though which could work not sure how you'd implement this though. I mean the idea is there just going to be abit hard to execute because the problem is with all these theft problems, if they have the phone off when the sms is sent then it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am noting the issues, what i am planning is something similar to SMS commander, when the phone gets a text that says a certain thing it does something. if the phone is off then the text will still arrive when the phone is powered on, hell i could probably even remove the recovery screen and then the person would need to fastboot the phone.
sms commander just "listens" for the text of an incoming message and if it matches a certain phrase it runs a command. obviously i would need root, but at this point if you haven't rooted your phone this(if it works) woulud do it.
with that said, i am researching the APIs to see what would need to be done, i used to have something like this on my old 8525 and i never had to use it, but i'm paranoid about stuff like this
i love this idea, there was this time when i had sold my touch pro on craigslist but the buyer had ripped me off! so that just pissed me off!
(good name ideas)
Cold-Droid
Lock Me
Ban-Droid
Dream Lock
Use me...Not!
Where's My owner
or just a plain app called
"Brick"
This app would be cool if it detected the owners sim card so if it were ever replaced it would say wrong sim card enter passkey (which they will not know)
and if they were to ever put the sim card back in then still it will tell you(sim card has been removed please eneter passkey)
or something like that! just an idea!
kind of like sim lock but instead of sim being locked, the device will be locked!
Why you would want to destroy a phone?
Just remote wipe your data, thats enough. Write that as an app!
Not bricking!
Have you guys used/considered Mobile Defense?
So here is my idea for this application.
Instead of completely bricking the phone, make it so that if the SIM card is removed, or the secret SMS message is sent that it does a complete phone lock and displays a message on-screen stating "This phone is suspected to have been lost/stolen. Please call XXX number to return the property.". All the while sending precise GPS locations updated every x minutes to a preset Email address and/or send a SMS to a preset phone number. This way the real owner may be able to easily recover the phone and none of the information is exposed. The only way to unlock it is to put in a code to unlock it. After x amount of days without being recovered, the program will issue a recoverable brick all the while showing the same message. After x more days after the soft brick, the phone will format all ROM and be unrecoverable. By that time, the real owner would have already gotten his/her replacement G1 if they had insurance, and the thief will have a fancy paperweight.
Great idea
Is this going to get anywhere?
that'd be funny if you could lock the phone at a screen that has a customized text.
Like F**K YOU B*TICH
or maybe
If Found Contact -
ETC. and it just stays at that screen. wonder if thats possible
edit- i shoulda read page 2 haha. same idea as Setnev lol.
Related
OK... I dont know how many times this answer or question has been asked on XDA, but I know for a fact that since i have had my first ever pocket pc phone, the PP-6600, which was about mid-2005, this situation has been a general problem with Virtualy everyone who has ever owned a PPC or
smartphone! (Maybe i will get my name in lights as a sticky post for this answer!!)
BUT HERES THE SITUATION... YOUR PHONE BEGINS TO GRADUALLY BECOME SLOWER. SOON ENOUGH YOU CANT EVEN SLIDE YOUR SCREEN AND ACCESS YOUR KEYBOARD WITHOUT A 30-45 SECOND DELAY, OR IN MORE EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES YOUR PHONE BEGINS TO LOCK UP SO MUCH THAT EVEN A SOFT RESET DOESNT SOLVE THE ISSUE BUT FOR ANOTHER FEW HOURS IF THAT. ON THE MOST EXTREME LEVEL, SOME PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIENCED THEIR PHONE JUST SHUTTING DOWN AND THE WHOLE ENTIRE ROM REBOOTS ITSELF THUS FORMATTING YOUR PHONE, ERASING ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS, PROGRAMS, ETC.
Well please dont blame or consider the rom developer's anymore if you ever thought it was the Rom's fault, or even the pagepool...
But after all is said and done, my phone just lost EVERYTHING and reset itself, and I had well over 1700 messages that i really needed that had alot of important information in them! After calling HTC tech support, and even going to my MSDN buddies, i didnt find anything or any help that i didnt already know... So when i broke down and finally called T-Mobile Billing to see if they could recover in any way my messages from a server... and of course the representative said its not possible.... BUT THEN SHE SAID SOMETHING THATCOMPLETELY ANSWERS AND SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF THAT NEVER HAPPENING AGAIN!!!
For those of us who send and receive LOTS of text messages daily, weekly, monthly..... That is the problem with why our phones begin to bog down, and eventually cause us hair loss and mood changes... LOL... Depending on the model of your phone, and how much Ram it carries with it, the phones are built to AUTOMATICALLY RESET THEMSELVES, as a last resort when it begins to get overloaded with text messages... especially threaded sms, and mms... but the first symptoms of overload is gradual slowdown of how quick your phone either switches to another app, or rotates the screen, or even
keyboard response time... 75% of this is caused by your phone having too many messages stored on it! There's really nothing you can do to remedy this other than deleting half or more of your text messages when u notice this happening, or obtaining some kind of regular pc program which will allow you to sync and download all your messages to your PC and thus allowing u to delete them all from your phone, and free up the excess memory... Now I dont have any knowledge of such a program and i would really LOVE some suggestions if someone knows of such an application... But my point was to address and hopefully solve this ongoing question!...
Now the credits.... Her name is - Tonya P. - and she is now with T-Mobile Billing... but look for her to soon join us, because we talked for over an hour, and she definitely knows ALOT about HTC phones that some of us may benefit from! She used to specialize in HTC phones and was assigned at T-Mobile as a support tech for them...
OK hopefully this post will help some of you...
Ryan
DJ BeatBreaker, Dallas
EDIT*******
Shortened.. but it must be explained in detail to address all the different problems which occur do to this feature...
and you can dispute it all you want fellows, but i have 10 friends who volunteered to help me test this by putting our
unlimited text messaging to the wall... Using mass SMS software, they were able to send me 1500 text messages to my HTC
8925 and that was the starting point for the phone just doing its own soft reset / for non responsiveness!....
At 1791 messages the phone shut down, and all of my customizations/contacts/programs/messages disappeared!! ... The
phone dropped to Athine OS Rom which was flashed before we started the test. But it was really a NAKED copy, which i
DID NOT flash to the phone.... and also i noticed that because of the HARD SPL... it was unable to fully format the phone so instead it just erased all my PERSONAL DATA / CUSTOMIZATIONS ... and the memory tab under settings said 116mb used ... but this has been tested and confirmed... I have no reason to make up a situation that will keep you from texting your heart out... I simply am trying to save some of you the EXTREME HASSLE that i am going through now, because i no longer have any of the information that was saved in my sms messages, and so i am about to lose $15,000 ... all because HTC never explained, or even warned that such a thing could happen!
So if its too long for you dont read it!... Im sure alot of people will thank me for going into so much detail so they could pinpoint exactly which scenario is/has occurred with their phone and can maybe prevent the disaster!
Christian
DJ Beat Breaker
you lost me.
keep it short and sweet
Simple and short...
Delete you old text messages. The allegedly bog your phone down. I say allegedly as mine has over 1000 on there all threaded and it is still a zippy as the day I flashed it.
Psi
Yep, as above it appears (in short) that the poster is suggesting that text messages (and I guess MMS/email too) will start to fill up your storage memory, once the memory is full it may cause your Kaiser to hard reset itself.
...That sounds pretty scary. The worst I've ever had is a popup warning me that 'Storage Memory is Critically Low' - If I take action and clear out old messages/email it speeds up a bit, if I ignore it, applications freeze and the handset is unresponsive until soft-reset.
...Worth bearing a potential autonomous hard-reset in mind just in case though I guess...
Regards,
Rob.
Recently my BFF thinks that her boyfriend is starting to lose feeling for her and start finding other girls. She wants to break up but her boyfriend won't let her go unless she provides evidence that he is losing feeling/cheating on her. She asked me to help but I'm at a loss except for one idea.
It was recently reported in the newspapers that you could bypass all security by freezing an android phone for an hour, then quickly removing the battery and putting it back on and turning it on while it was still below -10 degrees celcius. Is this really possible?
Secondly, his phone is a Galaxy Mini with whatever is the newest firmware (I'm a galaxy Mini II user so I'm not too sure), stock kernel, stock ROM, non-rooted but bootloader i think by default it's unlocked in SG. (mine came unlocked). It's been in use for quite some time only.
If the freezing is not possible, could we do it by any other method? note: before i can get pass the damn password i can't turn adb, unknown sources or debugging on.
Yeah that's all. Also, we can't wipe the /data since that's what we're gunning for. The method must be accomplish-able within 2 hours.
I might sound like I'm asking for a lot and might be unreasonable but please help.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. Please don't talk about the "just break up" or "politely ask him". If that had worked I wouldn't be asking here. He refuses to break up and he refuses to give his phone to me, even to "play". so called ethical hacking through the human link doesn't work anymore. We plan to take his phone for a while, bypass the pattern lock, then sieve through information.
blazerphoenix said:
Recently my BFF thinks that her boyfriend is starting to lose feeling for her and start finding other girls. She wants to break up but her boyfriend won't let her go unless she provides evidence that he is losing feeling/cheating on her. She asked me to help but I'm at a loss except for one idea.
It was recently reported in the newspapers that you could bypass all security by freezing an android phone for an hour, then quickly removing the battery and putting it back on and turning it on while it was still below -10 degrees celcius. Is this really possible?
Secondly, his phone is a Galaxy Mini with whatever is the newest firmware (I'm a galaxy Mini II user so I'm not too sure), stock kernel, stock ROM, non-rooted but bootloader i think by default it's unlocked in SG. (mine came unlocked). It's been in use for quite some time only.
If the freezing is not possible, could we do it by any other method? note: before i can get pass the damn password i can't turn adb, unknown sources or debugging on.
Yeah that's all. Also, we can't wipe the /data since that's what we're gunning for. The method must be accomplish-able within 2 hours.
I might sound like I'm asking for a lot and might be unreasonable but please help.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. Please don't talk about the "just break up" or "politely ask him". If that had worked I wouldn't be asking here. He refuses to break up and he refuses to give his phone to me, even to "play". so called ethical hacking through the human link doesn't work anymore. We plan to take his phone for a while, bypass the pattern lock, then sieve through information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADB isn't on, well i think somehow exploit might work. Search around XDA there are some tutorials here.
F4uzan said:
ADB isn't on, well i think somehow exploit might work. Search around XDA there are some tutorials here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm sorry i'm not sure what do you mean by exploits. I'm sorry I'm kinda new to all these stuff.
How do u know that the phone is not "Debugging On"
Most android users are turning on that feature.
Well if the Debugging is ON ... I got the way to unlock the pattern within 1 minute.
Fastest way to bypass: Wipe data. If you can't, there are only harder ways.
Factory reset
You can always do a factory reset to remove the lock but it will wipe /data. You can still do that tho. It's explained here : http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-gt-s5570-galaxy-mini-hard-reset.html . Also the fastboot mode works with adb swell as download mode.
Generalil said:
You can always do a factory reset to remove the lock but it will wipe /data. You can still do that tho. It's explained here : http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-gt-s5570-galaxy-mini-hard-reset.html . Also the fastboot mode works with adb swell as download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mini doesn't have fastboot. It only have Recovery, and Download Mode (don't tell me about normal boot).
My mistake ;P A habit from LG-GT540
ಠ_ಠ
So this past weekend I was out camping. Me and my girl got into it so i started knocking down brews. In my state of drinking i put a pattern password on my phone, smoked a cigarette and when I went back to my phone the pattern password I had chosen did not work. I know setting a password while drinking isn't a good idea but i know without a doubt what i set my pattern to because i have used the same pattern since my first android. Anyways i have exhausted all attempts to get the pattern correct and i tried to sign in with my Google email and password, which isn't an issue. But remember I went camping and to save battery what did i do? Did things to save battery i.e. turn off WiFi and turn off mobile data. So i continue to try to get into my phone cause now I'm back home and i really need to get in to use my Square Enix Security Token in order to log into Final Fantasy XI (i know nerd). So I eventually got to the point to where i was ok with wiping the phone, i know my stuff gets backed up at least once a day so i'm not tripping over that. The issue I am now having is this. When i first got the phone on the sprint network everything was good. Later on down the line i had the phone flashed to straight talk. i didn't want to mess up anything to where it gets back on the sprint network but trying to reset what ever it was i was tinkering with just wiped my OS. So now i'm stuck and not knowing much about how to fix it. I want to also add I did not find/steal/jack/rob or come up on this phone, it was purchased from sprint like 2 months after it came out. I would also like to add that any help would be really appreciated and that i will most likely no understand all the lingo yall use. Almost forgot, the "S" is on, not sure what that is but i do know it suppose to be off. And if it makes things easier i think the guy who flashed it used team win project or something like that cause that what comes up on my phone.
U should prolly ask this question in sprint forum and u may just need to ruu ur phone back to stock.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk
DISCLAIMER*** I DO NOT OWN A NEXUS 5, AND DO NOT FOLLOW IT HEAVILY THIS IS PURELY BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE TODAY AND MY YEARS OF USING ANDROID OS. I DO NOT USE IT DAILY AND ONLY USE IT EVERY NOW AND THEN FOR CALLS. MY INFORMATION MAY NOT BE ACCURATE AND PURELY BASED ON PREVIOUS USES OF DIFFERENT DEVICES FROM DIFFERENT BRANDS.
THIS MAY BE DISREGARDED OR/AND DELETED
Today my sister nexus 5 (aosp 5.1 "newest") was "stolen".
We spent the day looking all over the place for it and went back to a few stores we visited that day and asked the staff. But it was of no hope. No one has seen or heard of it, so we regarded it as stolen. So after awhile we went home we went to ADM (https://www.google.co.uk/android/devicemanager) and set up a lock and number to call as you would.
After a few hours my dad found it in his car :/ so yeah...
But that's just the bread of it. HERE is the butter:
1)The lock we set up was 100% not in place even tho ADM said it was "sent". AND the mobile data is ON, but this is just how ADM works and it doesn't check if the device receives it or not. Maybe google should add this feature.
BUT even after we got it back and connect to WIFI, the lock did NOT get put in place. Proving the phone does not check for any lock requests at screen unlock. But maybe because she already has a normal pincode in place and it couldn't over ride that :/
after that I took a interest in the security.
2)So i took a deeper look into the security and it flaw, and first off. EVEN locked I could access the status bar and turn on AIRPLANE MODE. This was without the password and I could turn on torch, wifi, mobile data ext off as well. The only thing I couldn't access was the "settings". But I had a great deal of control of the device's connectivity and from there a thief could make his way out without any calls or ANYTHING affecting him.
3)THIS was truly shocking. I'm not sure if this is by default or by accident. But by using the status bar "exploit" i was able to get into the users page and switch to guest mode. From there i was able to grant adb access and access the market. If this phone was rooted I guess you could install some apps to get rid of the lock screen or even install a custom recovery. But them i guess it's up to you to take the action.
As i said before. I do not use it. My sister does. But she does not root or mod, and only follows the AOSP path.
Some exploits may only work because of a few careless button presses. And may not even affect anyone at all if you don't spam the settings with random presses.
Thanks for listening to me and feel free to point out any mistakes i made and share if you could post if these "exploits" work for you. If someone already made a thread please delete this one. Thanks for listening
Actually the only serious thing is the guest mode option.. About the airplane mode, for a thief it would be much easier to simply turn the phone off.. Anyway I completely agree with you.. Google should take more seriously the security part.. It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
And make the back impossible to open so a thief can't pop out the battery.
Once a phone is out of your physical control, consider everything on it to be compromised, regardless of whatever security you have.
Please delete this. None of this is news or exploits. People have known and been disappointed by it from day 1 of Lollipop going live.
Well removing the battery of the n5 is not immediate.. If a thief want to resell it probably he won't do that until he's at home or wherever and if he couldn't turn it off you could track the position or at least erase your data..
91franz said:
Well removing the battery of the n5 is not immediate.. If a thief want to resell it probably he won't do that until he's at home or wherever and if he couldn't turn it off you could track the position or at least erase your data..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say Google should take security more seriously. Take that advice. Never assume a thief would act in a manner that accommodates you.
That's right.. Anyway I should try to make his life as complicated as possible ?
It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
sseuorosal said:
It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with some aluminium fold will easily to block any signal, the phone will eventually turn off.
p.s. If I am the thief which stole a useless phone, I will just break it and throw away. I don't think any thief will say "hey, I can't unlock it, let's return to the owner"
Hi,
I'm in need of help urgently!
Last week I had updated my Note 5 to MarshMallow and it was working fine. I remember the phone had never been off or restarted after the update until today when the battery ran out. Connected to charger and when I turned on the mobile it showed this message :
"Enter PIN instead of using fingerprint recognition after restarting device to protect fingerprints"
Now I've been unlocking screen using fingerprints from the time I got this phone. Unfortunately, I forgot the PIN and now I can't use fingerprints to unlock the screen. After a few failed attempts the wait time keeps increasing and now it has reached 30 minutes.
Is there anyway I can unlock my phone?
Please help ASAP!
Login into this website using your Samsung account
findmymobile.samsung.com/mindex.jsp
Find "Unlock my device" section
And make sure your device is connected to the internet then unlock you device
GreenXSI said:
Hi,
I'm in need of help urgently!
Last week I had updated my Note 5 to MarshMallow and it was working fine. I remember the phone had never been off or restarted after the update until today when the battery ran out. Connected to charger and when I turned on the mobile it showed this message :
"Enter PIN instead of using fingerprint recognition after restarting device to protect fingerprints"
Now I've been unlocking screen using fingerprints from the time I got this phone. Unfortunately, I forgot the PIN and now I can't use fingerprints to unlock the screen. After a few failed attempts the wait time keeps increasing and now it has reached 30 minutes.
Is there anyway I can unlock my phone?
Please help ASAP!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the MM build, after a reboot you have to use the pin but subsequent times will be fingerprint, I have no idea why they did this. Sorry that happened to you, I have no idea how to get around that other than to keep searching, someone else had had that happen I'm sure.
Yep, I'm screwed, too...
I even kept a list of every iteration of PIN numbers I would ever use (they are generated by an algorithm). I have tried every one - and I am still locked out - with 60 minutes in between tries!
I have very, very important legal documents, notes, and recordings on my phone that I didn't get to backup yet. Unfortunately, most backups do not "dig" well enough under App directories to get all files generated by all Apps. So sad...
And "No", I can't access any sdcard or SIM bc it's an S6 edge+, and they are all locked into the case! The supposed Samsung "unlock" feature does not work, though it says it does.
Dying here! HELP...
Douglas333 said:
Yep, I'm screwed, too...
I even kept a list of every iteration of PIN numbers I would ever use (they are generated by an algorithm). I have tried every one - and I am still locked out - with 60 minutes in between tries!
I have very, very important legal documents, notes, and recordings on my phone that I didn't get to backup yet. Unfortunately, most backups do not "dig" well enough under App directories to get all files generated by all Apps. So sad...
And "No", I can't access any sdcard or SIM bc it's an S6 edge+, and they are all locked into the case! The supposed Samsung "unlock" feature does not work, though it says it does.
Dying here! HELP...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're screwed really and this is why a lot of devs on here say to make backups! Your only option at this point is a firmware reinstall..
Rats! Catch 22...
MrMike2182 said:
You're screwed really and this is why a lot of devs on here say to make backups! Your only option at this point is a firmware reinstall..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But without root, I can't find a backup that will catch all the files well nested under App directories. With root, there are too many "gotchas" nowadays.
Besides, I know I have tried every PIN I would have ever set - so this MM "PIN" is a joke! There should have been a warning, as this is a serious disruption of service.
Wiping is just not an option - I have files created Friday, before the Upgrade, which would not have gotten backed up anyway. Besides, No update should block data access. One of you Gurus can't think of a workaround or push Samsung or Google for a fix? I'm thinking more like "Class Action Lawsuit" for disrupting normal access to my data and my lawsuit...
Anyone else that pissed?
Douglas333 said:
But without root, I can't find a backup that will catch all the files well nested under App directories. With root, there are too many "gotchas" nowadays.
Besides, I know I have tried every PIN I would have ever set - so this MM "PIN" is a joke! There should have been a warning, as this is a serious disruption of service.
Wiping is just not an option - I have files created Friday, before the Upgrade, which would not have gotten backed up anyway. Besides, No update should block data access. One of you Gurus can't think of a workaround or push Samsung or Google for a fix? I'm thinking more like "Class Action Lawsuit" for disrupting normal access to my data and my lawsuit...
Anyone else that pissed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to learn to "manually" back your stuff up yourself and don't rely on any programs/apps to do it...
There's seriously nothing the dev community could do because for 1 it's not the right way to go about this because if someone's phone is stolen or whatever basically they'd be able to come to XDA-Developers and find a way around the phone being locked for 2 that's definitely not what devs do, we don't look for ways to break into a phone or circumvent the security. You should have backed up anything you knew was important, simple as that .. You need to factory reset at this point. Sorry.